i want to believe

So the X-Files Revival Hired Female Writers and Directors After All

After enduring weeks of criticism for its apparently all-male writing and directing staff, the team behind the next X-Files revival season has announced that two female directors and two female writers are officially on board. Fox TV C.E.O. Dana Walden shared the news during a Television Critics Association panel on Tuesday, noting that creator and show-runner Chris Carter brought the women into the fold—but that their hiring was not a reaction to any initial backlash.

“Chris has assigned two women episodes,” Walden said in response to a BuzzFeed question about the company’s commitment to diversity and the lack of female creatives behind the scenes. “Two of the 10 episodes will be written by women, and we do have two female directors . . . so I think Chris is making moves in the right direction.” She also said the writers were hired “before news broke of this particular situation.” Fox later clarified that it will actually be three women: Karen Nielson handling one episode, and Kristen Cloke and Shannon Hamblin writing another.

By “this particular situation,” Walden was referring to the backlash that bubbled up in late June, when TVLine reported details about the new X-Files’ seven-person writers’ room. Fans quickly realized that all the writers were men—an all-too-common occurrence in Hollywood. The lack of women stung, especially because the series is focused largely on Strong Female Character Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), a feminist role model who is both a cool, intelligent F.B.I. agent and a medical doctor, dammit. (See also: the Scully Effect.) After the report about the writers’ room came to light, Anderson—who also had to fight just to get pay equal to that of David Duchovny in the reboot)—tweeted about it herself, writing that the show had an issue hiring female directors as well.

Walden, however, emphasized that these hires had nothing to do with the controversy stoked earlier this summer. “No one was replaced,” she said at T.C.A. “So I’m not 100 percent sure of the chronology of the situation. No one was replaced, and the two had already been assigned, as far as I remember.”

As for why Carter had assembled a largely male writers’ room in the first place, Walden pointed to the show’s history, and the fact that it needs to retain writers who have been with the series for a long time.

“I don’t want to make excuses for anyone,” she began. “I want to just explain that after 200-plus episodes of a show that has a very deep and specific mythology—where the fanbase has a very high expectation that the episodes are going to deliver on those Easter eggs and be consistent with those original episodes—the tendency is to want to rely on the people [who] helped you on the original, when you’re just doing 10 episodes.” (For the superfans, that’ll be two mythology episodes and eight stand-alone episodes.)

On Monday, TVLine reported details about the two female directors who had been hired: Holly Dale and Carol Banker, who was not only a script supervisor for the original series, but also directed an episode of spin-off series The Lone Gunmen. Scully would be so proud.

Additional reporting by Joanna Robinson.

This post has been updated to include the names of the female writers.

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